Comments on: Change XP Desktop Icons Into Smaller List View

By: HNKelley

HNKelley — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 22:41:57 +0000

I tried the ‘deskview’ utility and it looked great… until I rebooted. So that’s not going to do it for me. I tried manually adjusting the size and spacing of the icons, and that was great.

BUT (There’s always a ‘but’), the icon text was still next to the icons, not in the default position under them. So, when the system rebooted, the icon text moved to beneath. OK, might not have been an issue except the icons are nice and small now, so the text wraps in this small area. I end up with icon text columns 2 characters wide and really tall (height depends on number of characters, of course).

I had to use ‘deskview’ again just to make it all readable so I can get things back to normal. Since I fell in love with this concept of small icons so quickly, I’ll try some of the alternative methods mentioned here.

Does anyone know how to manually set the icon text to be next to the icon like ‘deskview’ does?

By: FrankJS

FrankJS — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 07:24:08 +0000

I tried the method that Dillon mentioned and it works great.
I thought I remembered seeing something like that.
I works fine.

By: Dan

Dan — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 07:38:45 +0000

it worked well. =].
but unfortunatelly when i turn the computer on, and then back on again they are back to normal.
this is the same for all my display settings.
i have a visual style set, but when i turn my computer back on and back to windows classic style.
how do i stop this happening?

By: snjblack

snjblack — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 13:51:35 +0000

Yeah! this what i always expecting to do!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

By: Matt

Matt — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 03:39:34 +0000

i just downloaded the ‘deskview’ and it worked fine, but when i restart or turn off/on my computer I have to do it again? the icons went back to large

By: Deyaa Addeen Fahmy Shedeed

Deyaa Addeen Fahmy Shedeed — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 10:51:25 +0000

Is there any way without third party ?
thank you a lot.

By: jen M

jen M — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 16:25:17 +0000

i must be brain dead. i installed and followed all instructions and nothing happens. my icons dont change. please advise

By: Syahid A.

Syahid A. — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 13:56:29 +0000

Or we can hide all the icons and use “Launchy” to take care of all of them.

By: Dillon

Dillon — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 13:08:05 +0000

It is tricky to find, but I know of a way to change icon sizes in XP. If you go into properties, select the appearance tab, and click the “advanced” button. From there you need to select icons from the top drop down menu (the same menu has icon spacing as well).

By: Peter

Peter — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 12:14:09 +0000

Thanks for this tip. One can also follow this article to enable “View” menu on desktop: